1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of electronic commerce. In particular, the invention relates to technologies for providing electronic commerce to users over a telephone interface. The invention also relates to identifying and registering users using telephone identifying information and personalizing the content, including the electronic commerce, presented to them using a profile selected using the telephone identifying information.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following describes various techniques used in telephone systems to provide enhanced user features. First, telephone identifying information will be discussed. Many telephone systems that support enhanced user features use telephone identifying information as a basic component. Then, a variety of example systems will be discussed that use telephone identifying information to provide enhanced user features will be discussed.
1. Telephone Identifying Information
The advent of automatic number identification (ANI) and calling number identification (CNID, CLID, or CID) within the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) has supported the creation of a number of services that use these pieces of telephone identifying information. Comparable systems may be used in other numbering plans and countries to support similar services.
For example, when consumers receive credit cards in the mail, they have to call from their home telephone numbers to activate the cards. This is a typical use of ANI. In this instance, the credit card company matches the ANI information provided when the consumer calls to a previously provided telephone number. If the ANI matches the credit card company's records, the credit card company activates the card.
2. Examples of Telephone System Personalization
a. Personalization Generally
With the advent of widely available real-time delivery of telephone identifying information such as ANI, a number of systems have been developed to use that information. One of the most common uses of ANI is for credit card activation. However, previous systems have been single purpose and typically require reference to other information provided separately. For example, credit card activation lines require separately provided information, e.g. your home phone number from the application.
b. Building Personalized Content on the Web
Some systems allow a user to build personalized content over the web. One example is the my yahoo!™ service provided by Yahoo! of Santa Clara, Calif. at <http://my.yahoo.com/>. The personalized content pages developed on the web are delivered over the web to users accessing the pages with computers. These systems rely on a username and password type system to identify the user rather than telephone identifying information and the delivery mechanisms is different.
c. Interactive Personalization
Still other systems allow users to personalize the content without entering special editing modes. For example, Amazon.com, of Seattle, Wash., keeps track of your purchases and preferences using cookies stored on a customer's web browser.
Some telephone systems provide limited customization capabilities. For example, voice mail systems from Octel, a division of Lucent Technologies, allow a user to set preferences for prompt length, but those settings must be made explicitly by each user. Further, customization is limited to a few options like prompt length and outgoing message selection. The user can not redefine the way the voice mail system works for her/him beyond those narrow customization options. Further, these customizations do not affect the kinds of content and further the presentation is not selected based on telephone identifying information.
d. Locale Selection
Services such as Amtrak's 1-800-USA-RAIL reservation line use telephone identifying information to select an initial region. For example, if you call Amtrak's reservation number in the Northeastern United States, the system presents options relating to the Boston-Washington line. However, if you call from Calif., the system presents information about travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
This can be accomplished by using the calling party's area code and/or exchange included with the telephone identifying information to select a region. The area codes and/or exchanges can then be paired to different scripts or default selections. For example, the area codes for New York City, e.g. “212”, could be mapped to the Northeast Corridor while San Francisco, “415”, could be mapped to the San Francisco-Los Angeles line.
However this does not change the kind of content presented and it is not user-selected.
e. Time Appropriate Information Presentation
Several services provide information through the telephone. That information may be adapted based on the time of day or date.
Some systems provide the information irrespective of the telephone identifying information. One example is Moviefone™, 777-FILM in most locales. Moviefone™ uses the current time at the called number to present appropriate information. The called number can be obtained using the dialed number identification service (DNIS). Thus, if you call Moviefone™ in the San Francisco Bay Area at 10 o'clock in the morning, only movies starting after 10 o'clock in the morning in the San Francisco Bay Area will be presented to you. However, if you call the Philadelphia Moviefone™, +1 (215) 222-FILM, from California, you will hear the Philadelphia movie times in Eastern Time. Thus, at 10 o'clock in the morning Pacific Time, a call to the Philadelphia Moviefone™ will produce information for Philadelphia show times after one o'clock in the afternoon Eastern Time at Philadelphia area theatres.
f. Targeted Advertising
Some free long distance services provide customized advertising to support their services. One example is FreeWay™ offered by Broadpoint, of Landover, Md., <http://www.broadpoint.com/>. These services require an explicit user registration process, typically using a computer to access a web site, to provide the service with a profile. Once the profile is provided, the advertising is targeted to the particular person's explicitly provided demographic information. In some instances, the advertising may be targeted both based on the caller's demographics and their location. Thus, callers from the San Francisco Bay Area with a particular explicit demographic profile may be presented one ad, while callers from outside the San Francisco Bay Area may be presented with another ad. Another, similar, service is offered on by phone by UAccess, Inc., <http://www.uaccess.com/>, by calling +1 (800) UACCESS, and provides consumers targeted advertising based on profile information they enter.
g. Voice Character
Most telephone systems have a small number of voice actors. Continuing with the example of Moviefone™, one actor performs all of the menus and prompts. Other systems may use different voice actors for different subsystems.
These actors are typically selected on a system wide basis and as such, different voices, talents, speeds, characteristics, dialects, and other prosody aspects of the presentation are not user selectable.
h. Purchase Recommendations
Voice systems such as GALAXY from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Mass., have been adapted to provide information about purchasing decisions for used cars. For example, GALAXY has been used to allow for interactive browsing of automobile classified ads. These voice systems are problem domain specific. Further, the systems are designed to locate vehicles matching a particular set of criterion, rather than making actual recommendations.
Other systems are web based. For example, Amazon.com will make book suggestions for users connected to the web via a computer. However, those suggestions are limited to a particular site, e.g. Amazon.com.
i. Voice Login
Most telephone systems require a user to explicitly identify herself/himself by using a combination of a login identifier, e.g. credit card number, account number, etc., and a personal identification number (PIN). Some systems abbreviate this process by allowing a user calling from a particular phone to shortcut this process slightly. For example, callers using a phone number associated with a particular credit card might only be asked to enter the last four digits of their credit card number together with their billing zip code instead of all sixteen digits of the card number. Other products such as Nuance Verifier™ from Nuance Communications, Menlo Park, Calif., support voice login capabilities, e.g. you just speak instead of entering a password.
i. Initial Profile Generation from Database Lookups
Most systems that provide information over the telephone require users to explicitly answer one or more questions in one form or another, e.g. over the phone, the web, and/or in written form. These questions form a demographic and/or psychographic profile for the user. All of these systems require the user to explicitly provide her/his profile information.
3. Telephone Commerce Systems
Prior techniques for telephone commerce have required users to explicitly identify themselves and provide credit card, or other billing information, for each transaction. For example, Moviefone™ allows consumers to purchase tickets for movies via a telephone interface. To purchase the tickets, the user must explicitly key her/his credit card information into the Moviefone™ system. For verification purposes, Moviefone™ requires the presence of the credit card when the tickets are picked up at the theatre.
Other automated systems operate similarly. Some systems record a user speaking her/his address either on tape, or in a computer memory, to allow for entry of the user's address information. These systems require offline processing by humans to key the voice entered data for order completion. Examples of these types of systems may include telephone operator base commerce, e.g. mail-order catalogs, and telephone based stock trading.